epl 's review for:

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones

4.0

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An extremely detailed book about the opiate crisis in America, focusing on the drug companies and Xalisco, Nayarit heroin cells that were two driving forces behind it. Quinones constructs an enthralling narrative with first-hand accounts and plenty of historical information. My only criticisms of the book are that at times it feels disjointed, as if chapters were all written separately and then patched together, and at times the author uses redundant and or complicated language to convey a simple point. This results in some basic information being repeated multiple times (ex: how many times he references that the heroin delivery service was like pizza being delivered or that arrested drivers are replaced immediately by willing young men in Mexico). These are small criticisms but happen often enough to make this not quite a 5 star read.